Universal powder

[opos]

Digging through my stash to pare it down and found I'd bought 3 bottles of Universal powder one time back a while when powder was tough and I was actively loading...but frankly I got no idea why I grabbed it..probably because it was available...I hear chatter about how it can replace Unique but is clean burning, yada yada yada.

Anyone use it (not just read about it) and what kind of luck did you have...don't quite know what to do with it as I pare things down...I've shot Unique forever and while it's dirty I get along pretty well with it.

[McGuiver]

Universal powder

I picked up 2 bottles for the shortage of powders too. It can be loaded into almost anything pistol and shotgun. I have tested it with pistol (9mm, 38spl, and 45acp) and it worked well. I have seen 12ga shotgun loads, but have not tested them yet. I like how many colors the universal powder has in it. If I remember it had black, gray, yellow, and white flakes.

Universal and Trail Boss are my emergency powders...


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[rsrocket1]

Universal was made to compete with Unique. Hodgdon and Alliant have been copying and trying to take each other's market share from each other for quite a while and Hodgdon has upped the ante lately with their "Unequal" and color powders.

Clays tried to take market share from Red Dot
Universal -> Unique
Clay Dot -> Clays
Unequal -> Unique
Color powders -> Red Dot, Green Dot, Blue Dot

Universal (your old stuff) is very close to Unique in burn rate and mid range Unique loads can usually be safely used as a starting point with Universal. The "Clays" formula of powders are cleaner than the Alliant counterpart and even though they may still be smokey at low pressures, there is very little residue left in your barrels or actions with the Hodgdon stuff. But you pay for it with higher prices.

The new stuff might also be a little cheaper.